The best Five Nights at Freddy’s game and it isn’t even a debatable topic. The game features the most enjoyable gameplay loop in the entire franchise with easily the most satisfying ending. The murder victims of the purple guy were set free from their eternal Hell of the animatronic suits while the very man who took the lives of the innocent children is left to forever exist between a state of the living and the dead as an ironic punishment for his crimes. Honestly a genius ending and if Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 was the final game, then I’d say the series would be one of the greatest in gaming.

I know a reason the game was heavily disliked when it first released was because of the “weak jumpscares” (Which isn’t where the horror in these games comes from, but whatever), though I would argue the game has the greatest set of jumpscares as getting hit by a ghost animatronic and not immediately hitting a game over causes quite the panic which in turn makes Springtrap's jumpscare all the more great. Speaking of Springtrap, his design is genius. It is what a good horror villain should be. The fact you can’t quickly spot him in the camera makes later nights terrifying as you’re frantically looking between each camera to see where he’s moved so you can lock him out of the office.

The office design is also great. The building makes a lot of sense with each point of entry for Springtrap making sense and no useless spaces that don’t make sense for the design of the building (Something that Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Sister Location just fail at for whatever reason). The game requires you to be on your guard at all points which makes potential deaths actually feel like your fault instead of being at 4:00 AM and Toy Bonnie just fucking up your day and allowing the wind up box to reach 10%.

I mean, the game isn’t perfect, but there isn’t much to criticize at a base level. My personal favorite and infinitely better than Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Wait, you like Five Nights at Freddy’s as well? I just got into these games recently, haha. What’s your name? By the way, I like your TV Girl shirt, do you listen to Deftones?

Rating: B+
Genre(s): Point and click adventure, survival horror

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 is virtually unplayable on any night past shift 4 and I’m tired of pretending it’s a good game. Sure, the horror factor easily reaches one of its peaks in the franchise, but given I played these games when I was 21 and not 11, there’s some glaring issues with the game I feel people have looked over because of their nostalgia for this game (I just wrote that out and felt existential dread, bring me back to Black Ops 2 multiplayer and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire wonder trading).

First and foremost, let’s talk about the toy box. The game encourages you to look at each of the monitors since there is some terrifying stills throughout the building, but to do so would be wasting your time of winding the toy box, putting down your camera, putting up the mask, and getting jumpscared because Toy Bonnie should be hung for being the worst fucking animatronic this series has to offer. There’s no skill, it is just getting yourself in a rhythm and hoping the game doesn’t cock block you out of a 10/20 win for the upteenth time.

Speaking of Toy Bonnie, why the fuck are half the animatronics just outright terrible? Balloon Boy doesn’t make the game more interesting nor is he notably scary, as well as Toy Bonnie and Toy Chica. There are good additions to the cast with The Mangled being one of my favorites, as well as having the best versions of my two favorite animatronics, those being Classic Freddy and the Puppet. But for every great scare, the game takes away from it with its dogshit gameplay loop. Like, why the hell does the maintenance office have two vents with lights on each side? Five Nights At Freddy’s 1 and 3’s offices made sense and Five Nights at Freddy’s 4’s bedroom makes a lot of sense given the narrative of the game. No building in human history has, is, or will be built like this Pizzera.

Also, the jumpscares are weak. Classic Bonnie, Classic Freddy, Foxy, and The Mangled are the only ones worth noting. Golden Freddy’s jumpscare is easily the worst in the entire franchise besides the White Woman Jumpscare™ from that new game I refuse to pay $40 to play. Toy Chica’s is kinda frightening because of her missing beak, but it is still ultimately whatever. Like I said, there are good jumpscares (My first playthrough I purposely let the toy box fully unwind, heard the lullaby, looked in the camera, saw the puppet floating out of the toy box, audible say “Huh…,” checked the vent, saw a fucking endoskeleton, and had just about shit my pants in a panic before getting jumpscared). The Mangled’s jumpscare is also really cool because I got it for the first time on my first attempt of 10/20 at 5:00 AM and heard the police scanner then felt my fucking heart stop beating.

I don’t get the praise for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 is better in every single way imaginable and Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 is much scarier. The game is mediocre and the horror completely falls flat because the gameplay loop does not allow you to feel scared. I mean, sure, it isn’t terrible, but one of the best horror games of all time? Eh… no.

Rating: D
Genre(s): Point and click adventure, survival horror

I used to think this game was the peak of the franchise, but looking back on it now, there’s multiple things about this game that really frustrate me to a point where I can’t really say that it’s my favorite anymore, there are still some fun aspects, the FNaF 1 levels might be my favorite just because of the feeling of watching the animatronics moving around on the cameras, but there’s also a number of levels I don’t like, namely every level in “Dark Rooms” really frustrates me. It’s still a good game overall, and the DLC absolutely slaps, but I can’t bring myself to say that the base game is one of my all time favorites anymore.

The game that would make mascot horror skyrocket and forever change the industry.

FNaF 1 is an amazing game. It is fun, simple and scary. Even traditional horror fans that prefer games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil can find some enjoyment here, I believe. Of course it relies on jumpscares more than anything to scare the player, but many elements contribute to the game's success as an horror title. The atmosphere, sound design, claustrophobic feeling the game gives off are just little pieces of a much bigger puzzle.